On May 26, Narendra Modi is set to take oath as the country's next Prime Minister. With him there would be some key cabinet ministers also taking the oath of the office. It will be interesting to watch who handles what in Modi's Cabinet.

Home affairs, finance, defence and foreign are some of the key ministries that the tall leaders with
in the BJP are eyeing. The few names doing rounds, who are
supposed to take oath along with Modi are Arun Jaitely, Rajnath
Singh, Arun Shourie, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Murli Manohar
Joshi.

In
Focus

Ministry of Defence is one of the most important
ministries in the Cabinet, which looks after the
functioning of the three armed forces guarding our borders. Experts are
of the view that India needs such defence minister who can fill the
huge operational gaps, can take strategic decisions, bring higher
defence reforms and can bring back the stagnant defence production
sector.

To know more about what should be the desirable
qualities in a defence minister and who are those leaders with in the
party, BJP should think of elevating as a defence minister, we talked
to few former defence officials and analysts.

There were suggestions that the country's next defence minister should be none other than former Army General VK Singh, because a person who will be handling this sensitive portfolio should understand the defence requirement of the country and the requirement of defence forces.

Brigadier (retd.) Arun
Bajpai wants VK Singh to be the next defence minister, because in his opinion the ministry of defence is totally controlled by the bureaucrats
which is not good for the country. “We should have a minister who
is highly articulated, highly educated and understands defence
sector,” said Bajpai.

Echoing some similar
sentiments, Brigadier (retd.) Chittaranjan Sawant says that he also wants to see VK Singh as the next defence minister. He said, “AK Antony has messed up
everything in last 10 years. Now we need a defence minister who
understands the defence, knows about weapons and can put up a brave
face to Pakistan and China, and I think VK Singh is the best person
for this post.”

Elaborating the desirable
qualities in a defence minister, Prakash Singh, former Director
General of Police (UP and Assam) said that the Defence minister
should be somebody who can fast track defence acquisitions, brings
quick modernization and indigenise defence production.

Singh added,“A defence
minister should be able to do faster upgradation of the capabilities of the
three wings of the Indian defence forces namely Army, Navy and Air
force.”